No, this is not a spam post and no, I have no investments in nor will I receive remuneration of any kind for pushing the purchase of Ahava products. Now that we have that out of the way…
Ahava is an Israeli beauty line that makes some amazing skin products. In fact, they make some of my favorites. My skin loves Dead Sea minerals, but I digress. As life goes, not everyone adores Ahava’s body wash as much as I do. There exists a faction that is pushing for the complete boycott of Ahava products. The proposed boycott has nothing to do with product quality or animal testing. No one has suffered any malformations or grown an extra nose after using Ahava (well, as far as reports indicate). But the fringe left wants to destroy my favorite body wash because Ahava uses “occupied mud.” I wish this was a joke.
The boycott started in 2009. A few American “peace activists” (their term, not mine) covered themselves in mud and went to the Tel Aviv Hilton to chant “don’t buy Israeli products.”
Right, because body wash is the reason the Palestinians insist on attacking Israel. So successful were their muddy chants that these dirty warriors for peace brought their protest state side. As recently as March and, “in solidarity with Palestinian Land Day,” Code Pink was pressuring Macy’s to stop selling Ahava products.
There’s a Twitter account devoted to the Ahava boycott. The account lists no affiliations, only a description that states, “AHAVA Cosmetics are made by Israeli profiteers in Occupied Palestine. Boycott AHAVA.” True to it’s name, the account tweets and retweets nothing but boycott propaganda and pro-Palestinian garbage like this:
PROOF: Israeli Civil Administration confirms Ahava’s excavation of mud from Occupied shores ow.ly/bW0lK #ChurchDivest #ga220
— St Louis PSC (@stlpsc) July 3, 2012
NYC July 17: tell TIAA-CREF to divest from the Israeli occupation! #BDS fb.me/1c6dOFocM
— Adalah-NY (@AdalahNY) July 3, 2012
Twitter refused government requests to remove tweets lat.ms/LMGVLU || This is why Twitter > Facebook
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) July 3, 2012
READ Who Profits report on Ahava’s illegal settlement trade ow.ly/bW0Ko#ChurchDivest#ga220
— Stolen Beauty (@BoycottAhava) July 2, 2012
Of course there’s a website to go with it: www.stolenbeauty.org, a Code Pink website. The website’s Talking Points section cites a litany of reasons you should care about the boycott including the fact that, “Ahava products are widely stocked in cosmetics stores and pharmacies and are very well known, making the company an easy-to-recognize and influential target.” With the persistent use of terms like, “occupied lands” and “oppression of Palestinians” it’s not hard to figure out which side of the Israel argument Code Pink falls. Why would Code Pink start this boycott to begin with, you may be wondering.
We join with hundreds of Palestinian civil society groups and many international organizations committed to pressuring Israel into adherence with international and human rights law.
Code Pink was actively involved in the Egyptian uprising that led to the overthrow of Mubarak’s government, so the allegiance to Palestine isn’t all that shocking. And being a far left organization, their loathe of capitalism and aspirations of shutting down privately owned businesses are also not surprising.
But it’s just body wash so who cares, right? What’s concerning is that in making Ahava “an easy-to-recognize and influential target,” Code Pink easily and seemingly innocently brings more women into their radical fold. The fringe left is skilled at taking what appears to be a noble cause and using it as a stage for a nastier much more devious revolt, like Occupy.
The battle starts here. So I’m choosing to fight back against Code Pink’s dirty thuggery, starting with buying as many Ahava products as I can. Nobody comes between a girl and her Hibiscus and Fig Mineral Cream Body Wash, nobody.
